Untie the Knot
by dragon of winter nights
Summary: :magic university au: Unable to use his magic following an accident, Mazda Clef is trapped at University, unable to finish his masters and increasingly frustrated. But things begin to change the day an undergraduate, Ryuuzaki Umi, runs him over...
1. Chapter 1

This is not exactly new – it's a neatened, moderately edited beginning which has been languishing on my fic lj; given it was already up, I decided it was silly to not have it here as well, especially now I've tidied it a little.

This is a moderately ridiculous AU, rather (very) self-indulgent. (Though not as bad as the other AU I'm hammering to completion.) I began it when I was studying at a Japanese University, and was still learning to cope with the RSI in my wrist – so I sent the Rayearth characters to a Japanese University (or an approximation thereof) on an Earth which has magic, and gave Clef the magical equivalent of RSI.

Then, as things do, it developed a _plot_.

This one's not a priority until Protecting You is finished, but it's also not being left alone in the meantime. It's too fun. XD I'd love to hear what you think of it, it's a rather different thing. (While in other ways and later on, very similar!)

~down

oOo

Untie the Knot

oOo

Chapter One

oOo

The first time Mazda Clef met Ryuuzaki Umi was when she ran him over.

He was walking down to the back gate off campus when she came around the corner from the bicycle park, going rather too fast, and yelling something he didn't catch at the person behind her - he had time to register a smudge of blues and white - and then he was lying on his back, a few feet away; his body aching and his memory of the last few seconds utterly blank.

"Oh, god! Are you alright?" The girl yelped, leaping off her bike before it even stopped moving and letting it clatter down against a wall as she sprinted back to him. "Are you okay? I didn't see you! God, I'm sorry - you're bleeding. Here, I've got a handkerchief somewhere…" And she fell to her knees beside him, her skirt fluttering a little at the movement.

Clef blinked as she began to search her pockets, and his head began to throb loudly, in time with his heart. He winced, a short moan caught in his throat, and she looked back to him.

"Oh my _god_, don't tell me I've brain damaged a student… say something! Anything!"

Clef's head was pounding, fuzzy, and it took him a few tries to make his throat work right. It did, though, in the end. Sort of. "T- that skirt really isn't appropriate for riding a bicycle in."

The girl stared at him as he blinked, fairly bemused at what he'd said - while she flushed a deep red, her eyes narrowing to blue slits. "Why, you - you pervert!" She went to hit him across the head, only to stop when it registered that he was collapsed on the floor with a possible concussion, and that hitting him probably wouldn't help. "I didn't mean anything like _that_, you pervert! I meant your _name_, or who the prime minister is, or something!"

As her voice rose in volume, it rose in pitch - Clef flinched as his head stabbed again briefly, and glared up at her. "I have a probable mild concussion, your voice is _far_ too shrill to be a help in _any_ way, and I don't know who the prime minister is because _the election's tomorrow_. I probably wouldn't be able to vote now thanks to you. Thank you so much! Besides… its true." Which it was, really, the skirt in question being fairly short and ruffled. Not that it ever seemed to stop a Japanese student - and not that it was polite to mention.

"Pfft. You can't be that bad if you're well enough to lose your temper." She snapped back, a little relieved, and apparently deciding to ignore any inappropriate comments.

"You'd be surprised. And this is _not_ me losing my temper." You'd probably be ten miles down the road if that happened, he added silently

"Yeah, yeah… hold still a moment, anyway." The girl produced a clean handkerchief from somewhere and leant forwards over it for a moment, clasping a corner of the material tightly between her fingers. Her eyes fell nearly closed; just a glint of blue was visible through her lashes and the long strands of her hair which tipped over her shoulder slowly and pooled in her lap.

Clef blinked, and was about to ask what she was doing when he felt the air about him _shiver_. Suddenly a finger of cold slipped down his spine - and then it was gone, and she was pressing the now-dampened cloth to his forehead.

The stab of pain from a gash he hadn't known about before stopped his voice in his throat, before he could say anything. But he saw the design stitched neatly into the corner of the cloth, and sighed - of course she was a mage. An undergraduate in his department, almost certainly. No one else ever used the tiny gate here behind their block…

Which was probably why no one had been past since the accident. Then… hadn't she been yelling at someone? They must've gone somewhere…

She had power, too, if he could sense such a small working even now he…

"There," she muttered, leaning over him and frowning at his forehead. "That's clean, at least; it doesn't look bad anyway, and it hasn't bled much, for a head wound…" She was utterly focused, ignoring even the hair falling into her face. Clef gazed up her again, feeling dazed, still, and beginning to be more than a little giddy.

"… Thank you." He murmured, and her eyes flicked to his at the soft tone. She looked… hesitant, now, all of a sudden. Almost… anxious?

"… I- " She stopped, cleared her throat… and was interrupted before she could speak again by the sound of speeding footsteps, and a shout.

" Umi! Hey, Umi! I brought some help - is he okay?"

Clef turned his head to look, then regretted it as the headache got worse. There was… well, a girl who looked almost like a high schooler, bouncing on the spot nervously, beside…

He sighed with relief, recognizing the head of the student mages.

He'd never been so relieved to see Zagato in his life, and that included the time Ferio and Lantis wound up getting all three of them in a police cell one evening. "Hi," he managed, putting on a wry smile for his friend as Zagato loomed over him, a forbidding shadow with his black coat on, and his dark hair loose about him.

"What the hell have you gotten yourself into this time, then?" Zagato rumbled, settling on his knees the opposite side of Clef to the girl - Umi, he guessed. Clef frowned, briefly, then dropped it when the expression hurt.

"I didn't do _anything_ this time! It wasn't my fault at _all!_"

Zagato snorted. "That'll be a first - without Ferio around, at least."

"Or Lantis. Do _not_ forget the amount of times your brother has gotten me in trouble, if you please. You of all people should know that straight face of his is a mask…"

"Hhmph." Zagato sounded as amused as he ever did in public, which at least meant he couldn't think Clef was hurt too badly… Zagato's hand on his forehead was blissfully cold against the heat of the pounding within it, and he felt himself relaxing as a wave of coolness washed over him.

The healing spell left him drifting, fuzzy, but aching less - and his headache had faded a long way from murderous. His eyes fluttered shut, slowly, the lids suddenly weighed down. "You've got better at that." He murmured, barely aware that the girl sat beside him was now shifting nervously.

"Come on, let's get you up-" He was lifted into a sitting position, the taller man moving around to give him a living backrest as Clef slumped against him, virtually boneless. "You don't feel sick, do you?"

"Noooooooo…" Clef slurred, and felt Zagato's chest shake with suppressed laughter, though he couldn't think enough to understand why.

"Of course I've been practising healing spells, you idiot - between you, Ferio and my brother they're always a good thing to be decent at. And it's easy enough to improve with Emeraude helping me - we're going to go see her in a moment, because I'm fairly certain you have a concussion, and you're probably going to try to kill me when you come out of this anyway." Again, he shook a little with laughter. "You know, the day we figure out just why you act like you've been heavily drugged to every healing spell going, either we'll rid the world of disease, or it'll end."

"Shut uuuup." Clef muttered, absently, letting his head slid to rest under Zagato's chin. "Sides, won't be yoooou, it'll be your giiiiirlfriend…"

Zagato sighed, his breath fluffing the top of Clef's hair out of place, and must have turned to the girls - Clef didn't care, the conversation now passing entirely over his head as his mind slipped into a hazy, sleepy muddle and he drowsed.

"_Is he… will he be alright? I mean, I hit him fairly hard - I just didn't see him! I can't believe-" _

"_It was an accident, Umi! It'll be okay, right?" _

"_Your friend is right, Miss Ryuuzaki; knowing this idiot, he wasn't looking where he was going, either. He'll be absolutely fine in a day or so, do not worry." _

"…_You're sure?" _

"_Absolutely."_

"_Does he really… he always reacts like this? To healings? I've never seen anyone do that before - I'm not sure he's even _conscious, _and…" _

"_He really does, don't concern yourself about that." _The form Clef was resting on shook again, and he curled closer, annoyed that it wouldn't stay still. Zagato moved his hand to support Clef better. "He's been like this since he was a child. He should start coming out of it in a moment or two - the spell I used wasn't very strong, mainly just a pain block. Still, he'll have a hangover tomorrow morning, probably."

Clef scowled. Zagato sounded far too cheerful about that, and he struggled to pay attention. "Well, I'd better get him to see Emeraude - she's taking her advanced PhD here, she's better at this kind of thing than the clinic."

"Un. One of our friends is being tutored by her, she always says she's never seen a doctor so good - but how are you going to get him there? He's in no shape to walk… should we go fetch someone? Or…"

"It's fine; I'll just carry him. He's hardly the bulkiest person around."

"…That's true enough."

…carry him?

…

Oh, _no way in hell!_

Clef's eyes sprang open, and he shoved himself away from Zagato in a rush - before his limbs were fully coordinated, and he ended up falling onto the girl who'd knocked him down, slumped across the floofy skirt he'd noticed earlier. At this moment, he didn't care - he was _not _going through that again!

To her credit, Umi didn't drop him, or even shove him away when she found herself with a lap full of barely conscious mage - she grabbed him, instead, as he began to slip to the ground. Not that he really noticed it just then.

"You are NOT carrying me!" Squeaked Clef, eyes wide, staring up at both versions of a blinking Zagato that he could see as the world span around him. "Not after what happened last time! No way in _hell_!"

"…Last time?" Zagato asked, confused, as Umi dragged Clef up until he could lean against her shoulder, swaying slightly.

The world was revolving faster and faster below him, and even when Clef forced his eyes to focus the giddy spinning feeling didn't go away, but he refused to slump back completely against an absolute stranger - more because it would give Zagato more incentive to pick him up than anything else. "_Last time._ Lantis carried me across campus, on his shoulder, for all of two minutes - do you know how long it took the rumours to die down? _Four months!_ "

"Oh." Zagato's eyes cleared, and he nearly smiled. "I remember. It's hardly the same, though. You were singing, and it was night."

"I was _very, very drunk_." Clef announced, carefully, wincing at the memory - and the memory of the next morning, and the worst hangover he'd had in his life. (Not that he'd had many, being a mage who tended to blow things up - that time had been just after he'd come out the hospital, and had seemed a good idea.) "And then Lantis dropped me."

"It's still not the same, and you're not getting out of this - it's Friday afternoon, there's hardly anyone left on campus, and those who are aren't going to be paying attention. Besides, practically everyone here knows about Emeraude and I."

"So? Lantis was going out with that Alcione woman back then, and that didn't stop anything." Clef tried to shrink away as Zagato reached out, and was glared at. "That doesn't work on me. I've known you since you were five years old."

"Then you know better than to make me call Emeraude to come get you."

"…" Stupid know-it-all tall people… Clef was trying to find an argument when his vision began to break up, painfully, black and grey sparks dancing before his eyes. Leaning harder against the probably very confused girl, he closed his eyes tightly, and tried to concentrate himself into not being giddy, without much success.

"Come on, Clef. The sooner we go, the sooner it'll be done." Zagato rumbled, and Clef didn't fight when he felt himself being picked up, concentrating too hard on trying to remain conscious. It was annoying that Zagato could do this, pick him up in his arms as if he was carrying a child, or something - but it let Clef lay his head against the solid warmth of Zagato's shoulder, and he supposed that was a benefit.

Zagato couldn't have taken more than a few steps when the girl's voice stopped him. "We…do I have to report this? To the police, or security, or anything. I mean, he got hurt, so-" She sounded frightened, and Clef began to regret making a fuss and looking like this in front of her.

"It's alright." He creaked out, not even trying to open his eyes. "It's not that bad - besides, I never have to pay for medical treatment, and I'm hardly going to report you. It was an accident, that's all."

"As he says, it's fine." Rumbled Zagato's voice, and the girl must have nodded because he turned and began to walk again.

In the background, Clef just barely heard the small "…thank you."

oOo

Clef had been at this University long enough he knew every building – even the ones for the non-magical half of the campus, since the accident which had left him powerless.

Or, not powerless – he could feel the sharp buzz of his magic pressing angrily at the ache in his head, an unwelcome vibration added to the pain. But it was bound down inside his skin, and since then he'd taken courses in a handful of other departments to fill out his time. He recognised it when Zagato helped him into the school of medicine and the medical arts, but, unfortunately, not from classes.

His friends had collected here, since. It _was_ one of the highest ranked Universities for Magic in Japan, but the confluence of his 'family' was more suspicious than he really cared to think about. Zagato was one of them. So was the woman now poking his head thoughtfully, ignoring his wincing and noting things down distractedly. Until she jabbed at the point where his head had struck the ground.

"Ow!" Clef yelped, batting her hands away and scrambling off the table, swallowing hard against the nausea the quick movement caused. "I thought you were meant to _heal_ people, not worsen the damage already done!"

"Get back on the table, Clef." Emeraude replied, not looking up from her notes.

"Not until you promise to quit _poking_ me, I won't."

She looked up then, and sighed heavily, unimpressed. "Sit back down before you fall off your feet, or I have to make Zagato put you there."

"…" Clef managed to hold the strong green gaze for all of ten seconds, before he swayed unintentionally, and sparks of black began to dance across his vision again. He hauled himself shakily back onto the tabletop, and leant heavily against the wall, screwing his eyes tightly shut against the white glare of the lamp overhead. Ignoring Emeraude prodding at his head was impossible, but he tried anyway.

By the time she finished and stepped away, he felt as bad as he had done when Umi first struck him - unsurprisingly, as she'd drawn away the painkiller Zagato had smothered him with.

"Well?" He cracked one eye open to squint at her, trying to stay upright against the wall, not sure he was succeeding. "Are you done yet?"

"You have a concussion, a lump on the back of your head that makes it look as if you were attacked by a madman wielding a hammer, and the beginning of some impressive bruising across your shoulders. Apart from that, you're fine." She turned to the charts of circle-designs stacked along the counter, and began to pull relevant ones out. "I can heal the worst of the concussion, and the bruising, but you're going to have to stay with someone for the next twenty four hours, be woken every so often while you sleep, and not be up to doing much _more _than sleeping. Certainly not studying, and I wouldn't advise going anywhere much for the next few days; even the convenience store will probably tire you."

Grabbing a brush and ink bottle from the shelves, she began to draw out the array she wanted. The mass of wavy hair she had pulled back into a thick braid seemed to glow even more brightly gold as she worked, and Clef 's eye closed again.

"Seems a bit extreme for falling over." He murmured. Emeraude rattled off the same explanation she have been giving him since she came to join the graduate program here after the accident.

"Your main problem is your power tried to flare out and protect you from the impact, and failed. The power you called on is trapped in you by the binding, and it's going to be forcing it's way out through any weak point it can find - namely, the places you've been hurt. I can't do anything about it; it's still _your _power, _I_ can't control it. So you'll have to put up with feeling lousy for a while, but at least it's not really hurting you. Just stopping you getting better as quick as you'd normally be able to."

"…Hmpf." Clef gave in when a hand pushed gently on his shoulder, and slid down to lie flat on his back - head lain carefully on one side so he didn't put any weight on the bruised area. "…So stupid. It can get out when I'm mad, but not to help me…" he muttered.

The room grew warmer, and he could see the rich yellow light spilling from Emeraude even through his eyelids - then that warmth was rushing over him, drowning him, and he was weighed down into unconsciousness again.

The next time he woke, the shadows were deep and indigo across the room, the sky outside beginning to be spotted with stars. He was also in an entirely different building, in bed, and covered with a light quilt; but he took longer to notice that.

Pushing himself up took a moment, but he managed it, and blinked sleepily up at the looming darkness which had shaken him awake.

"Eh? Lantis…? What are you…"

The shadow straightened up, and the faint light from the open window revealed the face of Zagato's younger brother - who looked so much like him that people tended to think they were twins, not a year apart. "You have a concussion, you shouldn't sleep too long; you'll go too deep." He rumbled, with the same deep baritone his brother had. "And it's tea time, so Emeraude said to wake you."

"…Hopefully this also means she or Zagato cooked." Clef lugged himself out of the bed, and tried not to lean against things as he walked.

He felt much better than he had since being run over - headachy, but not out of it so much… just a little slow, lethargic. Well, except for the muscles across his neck and shoulders, which seemed to have stiffened into a giant knot while he rested.

"You're in luck; she found out how much food Ferio and I had between us," as in, none, and Clef fought off a grin "and decided we were all eating together tonight." Then they were walking out into the main room, and the light nearly blinded Clef for a moment.

"Would that everyone include your friend, or isn't he back yet?" Clef asked, not wanting to move and walk into something before his eyes had adjusted.

Lantis stopped, too. "Eagle? He isn't back from England yet, though he should be flying out on Saturday, midday."

"Theirs or ours?"

"Theirs."

"I guess I probably won't see him until Tuesday, at least, then. Eights hours difference must be hell with jet-lag, and he won't be here until Sunday morning our time…" His sight clearing, Clef was greeted by the welcome image of a table covered with food.

"Come _on_, you two, get over here. Let's eat!" Was the (standard) greeting they got from Ferio, the youngest of them all by two years, and Emeraude's little brother. The five of them settled about her table, and soon the food was disappearing. Clef was eating a little less, a little slower than usual, but he didn't feel ill. Just didn't have quite as much of an appetite as usual.

"So, it's easiest if you stay here tonight and tomorrow, and we'll take turns to hang about when we're free."

"What?" Clef set his chopsticks down, and blinked over at Emeraude. "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention, with your brother trying to steal my food-"

"I was doing no such thing!" Ferio protested, in the background. "Lantis is much easier to steal from."

"You…"

"I was just saying it would be best if you stayed here tonight, and didn't go back to your room - we'll all hang about to watch you at different points, and there's more space…" She cut across the threatening argument, and Clef nodded. It made sense, if she was going to insist he wasn't alone; though they all lived in the same dorm building, everyone else had the usual tiny one-room-apartments, with a pod-like bathroom; Emeraude had the entire top floor, aside from the corridor people had to use to get out onto the roof and dry their clothes.

It was an apartment meant for the dorm's manager, but times had changed, and the university no longer insisted the manager live in the building. It cost about three times what the others were paying, but the gods knew that Emeraude could afford it; She had a full kitchen, a bathroom that wasn't so tiny it felt like being in an aeroplane, and three smaller rooms leading off from the main one, so one of these was a spare bedroom most of the time. She even had spare futons, for all the times they fell asleep (usually in the exam period) after staying up to cram all night. They might only live down the stairs, but working out where everyone's keys had disappeared too just wasn't worth it most of the time.

(And keys always disappeared in that place. None of them had figured out how, or why, but stay there half an hour and your keys would be _gone_, only to show up behind the sofa, or the sink - once, even, in the microwave of all places.)

Clef's room would have to be attacked strongly before anyone else could get in, and he didn't really want to argue with Emeraude; it wasn't a good idea, he'd learnt that a long time ago. The five of them had grown up in the same village, and only collected themselves to the same university in the last year or so - back when they were kids, Emeraude had ruled them all whenever she wanted to; that Zagato was three months and nearly a foot taller than her hadn't mattered any more than Clef's being a year older.

And, if he was being honest… Clef was feeling rather shaky, and his head was beginning to feel stuffed with wool again - curling up and going to sleep sounded like a good idea right about now, even if he felt pathetic about it.

"…fine. I'll have a futon in the spare room, though - I'm not turfing you out of your own bed." He added, remembering where he had woken up.

Emeraude just smiled. "You should go get ready to sleep, if you've eaten enough..." And at some point, the two of them had decided that age really didn't matter, that one extra little brother to look out for wasn't too hard, when split between two of them, and that Clef definitely needed someone to look after him. Despite him being the year above them at school. He protested the treatment… but he didn't actually mind.

It was no different now, as he found himself ushered into first his nightclothes, and then bed. The first person to sit with him was Zagato, a dark silhouette by the window, reading by the faintest of glow-lights.

It wasn't long before Clef was drowsing off, the room drifting away from him, and the warmth of the light quilt, the ache in his shoulders, all becoming unimportant.

oOo

The second time Mazda Clef met Ryuuzaki Umi was the following Monday, when the office sent his latest student to tutor.

There have been somewhat more auspicious beginnings to a relationship.

oOo

end chapter one

oOo


	2. Chapter 2

The title, in case anyone is curious (and as I am PROCRASTINATING on fixing the pieces of this chapter together, heh,) is from a Bad Company track of the same name. I'm not the biggest Bad Co. fan in the world (my father is one of the biggest Paul Rodgers fans, so I've grown up listening to them) and this isn't one of my favourite tracks, but the chorus - 'untie the knot/ the hold over me you got' - and the frustration seemed to fit Clef's situation. (Sorry, Clef. XD)

I made Eagle and the others from Autozam British because, well, that way I know faintly what I'm talking about. ^^;;; Though I went to a Japanese University for a year, I was an exchange student on a language course, not in normal classes, so the details of University life are not exactly a precise model of Japanese University life - they're closer to British, in several ways. I did then find in-world reasons for it, but, yes. Take everything with a pinch of salt!

I hope people like this chapter (which is later than I thought, because there was one paragraph in the middle which _refused to make sense_. For the sake of 100 words, many hours were lost. XD;) and, well, yes. It's all rather silly, but fun to write in a very different way to Protecting You.

(Yes, I am using the car names to give the characters their family names. I have no explaination for how things like 'Clef' and 'Ferio' are supposed to be Japanese names in this, so please don't ask! The magic system grew out of several things, including the use of 'magic' circles in Cardcaptor Sakura and Fullmetal Alchemist, and the University I've co-opted here is roughly quarter of an hour by bicycle from the Kitano Tenmangu shrine which is the very first place in CLAMP's new manga, Gate7, a coincidence which made me cackle rather with glee. ^^; Jumbos, for the record, is real, and is indeed the best okonomiyaki ever.)

Now I've rambled for far too long, so~ thank you for reading.

~down

oOo

Untie the Knot

oOo

Chapter Two

oOo

"Excuse me? Hello - may I come in?"

Tentative knocks on Clef's door were hardly a rare occurrence; the office seemed to feel that if he was hanging around doing nothing that important, as they didn't feel his scrambled-together selection of courses from the rest of the University really mattered when they couldn't count towards his (suspended, but still-enrolled-upon) Applied Magic Masters, then they should do their best to make use of him; he was tutoring a good dozen students fairly regularly, and the term wasn't that old yet. But he got an office out of it, he wasn't complaining. (Where they could hear him.)

"Hmm? Sure, door's open-" he replied, automatically. Then stopped, frowning down at the book he was annotating. (A benefit to buying his own.) That voice…

"Ah… thank you. The office said I should talk to you, about the dissertation I'm - _oh my god it's you!_"

Blue eyes met blue eyes met blue eyes, and his head decided to have a flashback, stabbing wildly. Umi stared, pale - then she bowed and fled the room, babbling. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry about that - were you okay? I'm so sorry! I still can't believe I ran you over… I'll leave, don't worry about wasting time on me- oof!"

There was a thud in the corridor, and a bitten off yelp from another voice.

Clef stood, eyeing his doorway a little wildly, and was debating how bad an idea it would be to go and look when a bemused Eagle Vision wandered into view, one hand gripping Umi's arm firmly. She was clutching at her nose, and staring fixedly at the floor.

"Do you have a seat this girl could borrow? She ran into me quite hard…" Eagle asked, in gently accented Japanese. Then he broke off to yawn widely, raising his free hand to cover his mouth. "Eh, sorry - I'm still a bit, you know."

"I wasn't expecting to see you until tomorrow, Eagle. Shouldn't you be in bed?"

Eagle steered Umi over to the seat before Clef's desk, and set her in it firmly. "I was bored, and everyone has classes - jetlag's no fun. Besides, I have a first draft of that essay that I was wondering if you'd mind looking at, if you've got the time…" Rolling his eyes, Clef held out a hand, and Eagle dug the sheaf of papers out of his rucksack. Clef set it on the desk, and peered at it suspiciously.

"I thought we'd agreed you'd type your essays up, to save my sanity when I'm trying to work out which kanji you_ actually_ meant?"

"It IS typed!" Eagle protested, grinning a little. Fluent enough in Japanese he might be - but kanji were the bane of his existence.

"Then what's all _this?_" Clef poked at the edges of the paper with his pencil, as if the bi-lingual scrawl there would sit up and bite him at any moment. "This is _not_ typed."

"…That would be when I couldn't sleep on the flight, and started trying to edit it on my own. Just ignore it - none of it makes much sense even if you know what I meant to write. I just haven't had time to print another copy off yet, and Lantis needs a new ink cartridge for his printer, so…"

"…Fine."

"Are _you_ alright, though? Lantis told me you'd knocked your head about quite hard - he wasn't sure you'd be in today."

"I'm fine. Emeraude let me come in as long as I don't dash about too much."

Eagle smiled at that. "I'm sure you're alright then. After all, if Emeraude let you out of her sight…"

Clef rolled his eyes. "Are you coming round for dinner tonight? She said something about cooking for all of us when I left this morning, so-"

"I suppose so. Emeraude's food is great - though I was thinking about dragging people to Jumbo's..."

"…You and Ferio are addicted to okonomiyaki, I swear. How do you ever cope in England?"

"Badly!" Eagle grinned, then yawned and leant back against the wall, settling down to wait. He was right next to the door - if the girl bolted again, he'd be able to stop her. (Which said quite a lot about Eagle and loyalty; he'd no idea why she'd run, yet here he was ready to back Clef up, without even being asked. Probably without thinking about it, even - he looked more asleep than awake, slumped back like that.)

Clef set his pencil down, and turned to the girl. "…is your nose all right?" he asked, figuring first things first.

"…I'm fine." She said, quietly, almost trying to sound as though she wasn't there. Umi was staring at the floor, not letting her eyes wander about the room - she had caught the hem of her skirt between her fingers, and was twisting it tightly, rumpling the fabric badly. Her cheeks were flushed a bright red, but her nose was a shade brighter still, where she had run into Eagle. Clef eyed her dubiously, and wondered if he could find an ice pack for her.

Then she looked up, and Clef hadn't remembered just how bright her eyes were before.

"…I should be asking you that." She said, with a small, nervous smile. "I'm the one who ran you over."

Clef didn't have to look to see Eagle straighten, and become much too interested. "You… did what?" he grinned at Clef. "Now, _this _is a story I haven't heard before. Or is that how you hit your head? Lantis was holding out on me if it was..."

"Oh, shut up." Clef flapped a hand at him dismissively, but didn't hide his smile. "Go bother your boyfriend or something. Or, better yet - there's an article by a J. Kessler, in one of the newest journals. I can't remember which, but there aren't that many English journals in the library - It's a paper on…oh, what do you call it? The British water demon; the one that looks like a horse, drags you into the water and drowns you… well, it's on that and the connections it has with the history of London. If you've nothing better to do, could you copy it for me and stick a few translation notes on? "

"Yes, sir." Eagle laughed, and wandered back out into the corridor, yawning again.

oOo

"At the office, they said you were going to be my tutor for my dissertation, but you're not a lecturer, are you?" She asked, and the confusion was warranted; his (manic, cardboard, made-by-Ferio-and-remade-even-brighter-if-he-dared-remove-it,) namecard listed the MSc. he should have by now, not a doctorate.

"No, but I tutor undergrads quite a lot." He stopped there, searching for a way to kick the conversation on. She was holding a set of papers in her hand, crumpled by now with the grip she had on it, but he could see it was a print of the Department's usual dissertation proposal form, and she'd begun to fill it in. "Is that your proposal - may I see it?"

As he reached across the desk, his sleeve caught on the top of the computer screen and it rucked up before he even noticed, exposing a long stretch of his arm; Umi caught her breath audibly, and he froze.

"...I can see why they told me to talk to _you_." Umi whispered, staring at the dark bands of ink wrapped about his wrist. He didn't understand the comment, but then she leant forwards, one hand reaching out, and Clef couldn't help leaning back into his chair and dropping his incriminating hands into his lap. She froze, then stepped backwards again, head dropping until she was staring at the floor. He could see the high colour returning to her face anyway, through the fall of her long fringe.

"Sorry." he said, quietly. "It's just, it..."

(_It wasn't voluntary?_ he thought, and didn't know which he meant; flinching away even with the desk between them, or the existence of marking itself.)

Umi's shoulders were hunched up, her face still looked painfully bright, and _surely_ he could do better than that. "The thing is.. damn it, hasn't anyone said _anything_ about me? Last I heard, it was common gossip about the department!"

That lifted her head, at least. so she could stare at him in confusion. "Said what? I mean, I've heard of you, sure - I didn't realise, but that's you, right? You're staying here until you can finish your practical masters, because at the moment you can't cast after an accident, but I've not heard about a mark-" Her eyes went wide and her voice trailed off as she stared at his hands - or at where they were, behind the desk, the pieces fitting together.

"Aha." he said, dryly.

"The reason you can't - it's a binding? A full one? But who - why did you ever agree to that?"

The expression she wore was one he knew intimately, the look of someone who couldn't imagine life without that extra sense, that ability, because it was so intrinsically a part of them. Waving her back to the chair opposite his desk with one hand, he rubbed at his eyes with the other, trying not to flinch again when his cuff fell back down his arm again, and Umi hissed at the further swirls revealed. "It's a regulation government one, put in place when I was hurt to protect the mahou-arteries as they heal, and stop any uncontrolled magic while I get the muscle control back in my arms." He looked at her, and wasn't sure what prompted him to add: "by the time I came around, it was in place, and only a government approved specialist can take it off."

"...Ah." Another uncomfortable silence descended, and he almost thought she was going to make her excuses and run, and he didn't want that.

"So, what's it about?" he asked. Umi blinked up at him, confused, cheeks still mildly flushed. "Your dissertation." he prompted her, "what topic have you picked?"

"Oh! Yes. The ways magic is channelled through symbols - whether it draws power or has power pushed through it, what difference that makes for the ways it works, and if it's possible to store magic in the circle so a non-mage could activate it without needing another power source, that kind of thing." A smile twitched at the corner of her mouth. "The technicalities of circles."

"That's... a rather broad topic. You only have 15,000 characters, you understand?"

The girl grinned at him then, briefly, and it was his turn to blink as her hesitancy faded entirely, leaving behind the girl who'd yelled at him even while she worried. "That is exactly what my advisor said - then 'I don't know enough on that to help you narrow it down; we'll find you a tutor to help out. Someone with a closer specialty.' And the Office sent me here. Like I said, I can see why they sent me to you - bindings take power, don't they, without being activated. There aren't that many symbols which do, and there's hardly anything about them in the library, at least in the catalogue - government restrictions all over the place! Even when they talk about them there aren't any images, and how do you analyse a symbol without knowing what it looks like?"

"I have, also, studied the topic myself since I got landed with one, you'll be pleased to hear." Clef said, dryly. "I can be more than just a study subject."

Umi blushed again, but didn't tense up. Instead, she pulled a face at him. "I should hope so, or they'd have given me someone else as my _tutor_."

It should have been awkward. It always _had_, talking about the binding. Instead... Clef felt like sticking his tongue out at her, and quashed the impulse fiercely. He rolled his eyes instead. "You've no clue where you want to start narrowing it down?"

"Nope - I've so much reading this term I can't really fuss about with general reading, either." She pulled a face. "University's meant to be _easy_ after you get in, but I keep taking too many courses which want me to _work_."

It was a common complaint among the mage students. Some kind of training was required in magic by the time one came of age at twenty, so people had to either be on a university course or take one of the government evening classes, which didn't teach much at all beyond how to _not_ use magic. Most students in the country worked like hell to get into their chosen University then got to relax, memorising their way through their classes, hanging out with clubs and societies. But the mages were on a different model - smaller classes to deal with the variety of magic, more individual essays and presentations to ensure they understood what they were learning, and then a dissertation if they wanted to pass with honours. They usually had a term or two abroad, as well, and the mages generally had more international students and teachers than the rest of the University as a whole.

That, though, was a universal trend. If enough links were fostered between the various mages, then, the thought went, it would be harder to persuade them into any wars like the ones of the last century when half the world seemed torn apart.

Umi, though... he didn't think she really meant it; not only was she smiling still, but if she wanted an easy time of it she could either have opted out of the dissertation or at least picked some small contained, simple topic.

Grabbing a piece of paper off his scrap pile Clef nudged at the mouse to wake his PC back up. "If I give you three or four good overview books to start from, you should be able to narrow it down, and we can argue it out from there if you don't hit on something reasonable immediately... these should all be in the library, I can check that from here for you. Unless they've thrown them out in the last few years, and the librarians _never _get rid of books, they just shift them into the basement vaults." he opened up one of his undergrad essays and mined the bibliography, scribbling down a couple of the titles and editors, then stopped and tapped the end of his pen on the desk. "There was another one, I found it last year. Newish, blue cover - what the hell was it _called_?"

"I have no idea, but I'm sure I can get somewhere with these in the meantime?" She reached out to take the list. His sleeve fell back a little, again, as he handed it over - not far, just enough for the very edge of the ink to show, too dark for a shadow, at the end of his sleeve. "Could I see it?" She asked, abruptly, and he just stared at her a moment before bursting out laughing, taking both of them by surprise.

Umi went a painfully bright shade of red and dropped her head into her hands. "I didn't mean - well, not like _that_-"

"I'm not sitting around topless in my office. Somewhere else, perhaps - there's really no good way of saying it, is there?" She was giggling into her hands now.

"There really, really isn't!"

It took a few moments for them both to sober up again - every time he caught her eye Clef's mouth twitched up, so he focused on his computer screen, finally checking those books were in the library. "I'll hunt for the other book when I next go in, I think I know where I found it, and I need to change my books before the weekend anyway." He promised, then "...look, I'm really _not_ comfortable with taking my shirt off in here - anyone could walk past, that's not going to do either of us any good."

Sitting back, Umi nodded. "I know, sorry. You're right, I wasn't really thinking - it just seemed so convenient, I got carried away. You shouldn't have to be some kind of research subject just because it would be easier for me."

"No - no, I want to help, I don't mind, it's just, not here. And I have no idea how to make this sound less disturbing, but my room is just down the road and I've a copy of the Tayama book which you might as well borrow?"

There was a pause while she stared at him and he largely tried not to blush - then they both dissolved back into laughter. (His throat was beginning to ache, he'd not laughed this much in - well, a while.)

"We seem destined for eternally awkward moments." Umi said, putting the list and her papers in her bag. "If you're sure, then, yes, I'll come, please."

"Let me get my bag together, then. I wasn't planning on much more today anyway, I can do this at home." He shoved his book into his battered bag, next to his laptop, frowning at the split beginning in the side seam. "Time I got a new one, I think. I don't want my laptop falling out halfway down the road."

"That wasn't..." Umi trailed off. Clef blinked at her, not following. "When I knocked you over, I mean." she explained. "Was that what tore it?"

"Oh, no, this is just overuse, honest."

oOo

"So you've done your own work on circle theory?" Umi stood by his bookshelves, flicking through the Tayama book. She tapped a finger on one of his scribbles post-its left in the pages. "What did _you_ focus on?"

Clef was dragging the cover of paper from the floor, stacking them roughly on the desk. At least the paper was the only mess - he'd done laundry yesterday, banned from thinking too hard. "A simplified circle for general manipulation spells. It was my dissertation, actually, same as yours." Umi hummed a question mark at him encouragingly. "Most of the work in Circle Theory goes on making more elegant, more effective diagrams - making them more and more _specific_. I wanted to do the opposite. Simple circles are always seen as children's playthings, or sloppy, inefficient. The kind of thing only thieves or street performers bother with. People carry around their favourite circle for general use because even those are too complicated to draw quickly. I wanted to have something more flexible - lightning strikes in an instant, so I wanted something I could _draw_ in that instant, and do whatever I needed - you're staring at me."

"It's just - that seems a bit much, for an undergrad?"

"Less than your topic." He pointed out, shooting a grin back at her. "Which is why I know of what I speak asking you to focus on something smaller. I went through _hell_ trying to cram it all into the limits."

The book closed as Umi turned right about to face him. "But you came up with a working design?"

"Yes - well, mostly. It works with physical elements, not the more evanescent types, and the use is limited to physical manipulation - you'd be able to use it. That is, it's water, right? Your element?"

"Yes."

"Here, I've a copy of it somewhere. The bibliography might be helpful, I guess. I've not got a printout of the one I got _those_ off..." He had to kneel on the floor to get into the long low cupboard under the window, and his right arm twinged when he leant his weight on it - he hid the wince, switched arms, and kept on digging until his fingers hit the plastic curves of the binding, buried under copies of the last year's essays. Flicking through, he found the diagram page and handed it up. "It's mostly based on the work Kurama and Briggs did - which you won't have read about yet, sorry. The outer circle is the activator."

Umi touched the outermost line as he stood up, and the design began to glow a little; she looked about, and spotted the glass of water on the desk. There was hardly a moment's hesitation before the liquid coiled up and out into the air, shivering into a ball half a metre above the desk. Then she blinked at the laptop beside the glass, and the water moved further into the room. It was an impressive display with an unfamiliar circle, and he could feel the faint shiver of power against his skin again, though less dramatically now she wasn't dragging moisture from the air.

As he watched, she raised her other hand, palm up, and the water leapt in a perfect silvery arc to sit on her hand, then it split into three distinct strands which she plaited together, wrapped about her fingers and each other, before sending it back to splash into the glass one section at a time. Then she beamed at him, and his breath caught in his throat.

"So, the office were right three times over about you being my tutor."

oOo

Clef's room was at the top of the first set of stairs in the building, and with the bug screen and the depth of the window, the bulk of the aircon on the sill outside, there wasn't much chance of people seeing in even though it faced the road. _Both_ roads - he was near enough to the corner of the building that he could see right across the junction and down to the level-crossing. The bell for approaching trains was the constant marker of his days, sounding regularly four times an hour, right into the night.

He still moved back into the room when Umi looked at his wrists, his shirt's buttons, then away again. "Do you still-" He started, then gave up and shrugged. Umi looked away, down the corridor-kitchenette towards the door, but nodded firmly.

"If you wouldn't mind?"

He wavered, then rolled the desk chair into the middle of the wooden floor and sat on that, facing the back; the end of his bed felt too... something. This way he could swing away from her as he fumbled the buttons undone, and pulled the thin cotton off in a rush. His hair twisted and fell in a tangle about his face, and his arm twinged again at the stretch as he raised it - damn it, he hadn't been overdoing it _that_ much - but awareness of both fled the instant Umi lay one cool fingertip on the nape of his neck.

Clef tried his hardest not to shiver. Staring at the papers on his desk, he folded his arms across the back of the chair and leant forwards. He knew, roughly, what she was seeing - he had been shown diagrams of the lines swirling across his back, the exact pattern which extended from neck to his waist, and reached down his arms, heavy black lines he couldn't disguise. He caught glimpses of it in the bathroom mirror when he was taking a shower. But... he wondered what she could be seeing which made her catch her breath so, reach out so gently. He hated it - even if people didn't understand it as a binding, they glimpsed it and thought it some delinquent tattoo, and it was there to snarl himself up inside his skin.

"I didn't expect it to look beautiful." Umi whispered.

At that he had to look at her, startled, craning his neck to see her expression, and _what_ he would have said then he had _no idea_, but he was going to say something - probably an unwise something - when there was a perfunctory knock at the door and he looked there instead just in time to see it open, and Ferio walk in.

"Hey, Clef, I was wondering - um." Ferio managed to kick his slippers off in the genkan and step up into the corridor before he actually looked up and stopped. The three of them remained still as a tableaux until the heavy door swung shut of its own accord, and then a wickedly amused grin spread across Ferio's face. Clef moaned and dropped his head onto his arms. "Sorry to interrupt, it wasn't anything important - and you really should remember to lock your door if you're bringing people home with you, Clef!"

"I'm not-" Umi spluttered, the same time as Clef glared and said "you aren't interrupting, she's studying the damned marking - and you should learn to _wait for an invitation_."

"But you never hear me when you've got headphones in." Ferio pointed out, coming into the main room and offering Umi a nod. "Hi, I'm Ferio. Honda Ferio, that is. Are you one of Clef's tutoring victims?"

"Ryuuzaki Umi, pleased to meet you. Yes, he's going to help me with my dissertation."

"Not just as a subject of it, either." Clef felt the need to mutter, pulling his shirt back on.

"Ah." Ferio looked taken aback, for a moment, but recovered himself easily. "I was sent on a quest by Lantis. Are you going to be a while yet? Should I come back?"

"No, that's okay." Umi grabbed her bag, and picked the book up again. "I've got to get home anyway, my friends are expecting me. When do you want this back?"

"Whenever you're done with it, I'm not using it at the moment. Do you want to set a time for a tutorial, or wait until you're into the reading?"

"I, hmm. Are you free Friday afternoons? I should have got through some of it by then, and I don't have anything after three?" She had to half unpack her bag to get the heavy book in, but grinned so fiercely when she had managed it that Clef grinned back involuntarily.

"Half three on Friday, then. My email's on system if you need to get in touch beforehand..." Clef stood as she made for the door, meaning to walk her down, only to be waved back firmly.

"I can find my own way out, you stay and help your friend on his quest. I'll see you Friday." She bowed and was out of the door before he could reply, and it swung shut with a thud behind her.

Ferio smirked down at him. "Interesting day?"

"You could say that." Clef shook his head, smile still tugging at his lips. "Given that she's the girl who ran into me last week."

The doors downstairs shut with their unique glassy rattle; Ferio stared at Clef a moment, then walked over to the window to watch Umi go. "Really? ...Well, that's one way to get someone's attention, I guess. Not sure I'd recommend it, but-"

Clef grabbed the closest pencil and threw it at Ferio, who twisted away like always, laughing and catching it mid-air. "I'm going to be tutoring her, not _dating_ her. What did you come to see me for, anyway?"

He tried not to look _too _relieved when Ferio followed the distraction, snickering even harder. "Zagato bought a plant for Emeraude last week, he wants to give it to her tomorrow, but he gave it to Lantis to look after because she'd see it in his room..."

"...And it's dead already?" Clef guessed.

"Dying, Lantis thinks. He wants you to come see if you can work out what it is and where we might buy another one."

"Why on Earth Zagato gave it to _him_ to look after..." Clef muttered, but obediently got up and followed Ferio out and down the corridor. It would distract him from going over the afternoon and being too embarrassed at himself.

(It would also give his arm a chance to rest. But that was another one of those things he didn't think about.)

oOo

end chapter two.

oOo


	3. Chapter 3

oOo

This entire fic is filler, physio, and fluff. And yet somehow it now wants me to actually give it a structure? PFFT. *laughs* Maybe once Protecting You is finished I might pay more attention to the timing... ^^; (...This chapter is apparently a Sane Length. HOW HAS THIS HAPPENED?)

(Speaking of Protecting You, I AM SO SORRY, I AM WORKING ON IT. T_T Bear with me a little longer? I am juggling plot threads. Insane plot threads. Why did I think politicians were ever a good idea? Editing this chapter was my light relief!)

This chapter should be dedicated to the three physiotherapists who have shifted the bones about in my wrist. THAT HURTS, PEOPLE. *whimper* I don't even have an Umi to distract me!

As ever, I adore feedback, be it good or bad. And I love all of my readers! *hearts* (I don't mean to torment you with these long posting breaks ;_;) Thank you for your comments here, everyone! (ffn is not co-operating with my seeing them to reply at the moment, but get the notifications and love them~)

(SIDE NOTE while I am here - for those of you who might be interested, there's a fanworks exchange (fic, art, and/or vids) with signups currently open - the Parallels Exchange, (curse ffn for not allowing links in chapters! There's a comm on livejournal and on dreamwidth and the challenge is on archiveofourown) which is for rarer asian fandoms - and Magic Knight Rayearth is avaliable for offering and requesting this year! Along with Duklyon and Tokyo Babylon, and a host of other wonderful things - it's a low commitment, and all the prompts are going to be visible later in the exchange, and I would love it if people would sign up and request Rayearth things because I want an excuse to write them all. XD /pimp)

Right, moving on! Thank you for reading!

~down

(ps if you read this chapter already please ignore the bit where I apparently managed to upload the version without certain people's names in. XD;)

oOo

Untie the Knot

Chapter Three

oOo

Clef rolled into friday like a barely contained thundercloud, his expression ominous enough that people were steering well out of his way in the corridors when he eventually reached Uni.

Waking up had been an exercise in trying not to swear loudly enough his neighbours would hear. Sometime in the night he had worked his shoulders free of the covers, and his top hadn't been enough to keep a chill from tightening the muscles from the base of his skull across his shoulder and down to the bottom of his shoulderblade. There wasn't even time to batter it with hot water long enough to make a difference, he was due at the clinic downtown.

(At least he always took the bus. Riding a bike when he came out, thoroughly poked, wasn't usually a brilliant idea.)

His physio session had started with the therapist frowning at his shoulder before he'd even got his shirt off, asking what he'd done to stress it, and things went downhill from there. He spent most of an hour face-down on the table with his shoulder and neck coated in the chilly, sticky gel used with the ultrasound, chin and forehead wedged uncomfortably against the edges of the hole in the table which let him stay still and not suffocate.

Normally he didn't mind ultrasound too much. On his wrist and lower arm, at least, it was too far away for him to hear it. But as soon as it reached his neck he could make out the edge of the high buzzing, and it left him with a blazing headache.

Also, the room was _cold_, and he was shirtless with a lot of chilly gel spread across his back. Not an activity he appreciated.

"I want you doing the full set of shoulder stretches I gave you for at least the next three weeks." Dr ? said, spending the last five minutes actually working on his arm, manipulating wrist and elbow with a dire frown on his face. "You should be taking ibuprofen daily - how much have you been having since this fall? Hmm. Double the dose, please, this weekend - and for the next three days you are _not_ to use this arm. No typing, no writing, no chopping vegetables - go and eat out, at least you'll avoid the washing up."

"I have _essays_." Clef grumbled, knowing it was useless even as he protested. The therapist didn't even look up.

"Yes, and if you follow my instructions you might even complete them without undoing the work we've put in this past year."

"Two years."

"Hmm?"

"It's been two years since I started coming to physio."

"...Then you should know better than to argue by now, Mr Mazda." He was glared at. "With such extensive damage as you have to the mahou-bearing channels in your arm, it's a near miracle we've achieved as much as we have in that time. But if you don't obey instructions, you are _never_ going to regain full use of that arm-"

"Which means they'll never consent to take this _ink_ off my back, I _know_."

The therapist finished the final, painful bend of his wrist, and let go. At first he'd tried to get Clef to lie still for a minute or so at the end of each session,but he'd given that up as a hopeless task long ago. Now he just handed Clef a paper towel to get the worst of the gel off, and turned to wheel the trolley with the ultrasound away. "For what it's worth, the bones hardly shifted this time. A few weeks diligence should put you back where we were last week. I'll see you next Friday, as usual?"

Clef pulled his shirt back on. "I'll see you then." He confirmed, with a sigh. Every time he rolled his shoulders back there was a horrid _crunching_ sound, but at least it was moving again.

The bus ride back to Campus gave him time to replan his work. He needed to get some reading out of the way as soon as he managed to switch his current books out for new. _That_ he could still manage without breaking orders.

He should have been able to check the catalogue and plan his trip in the gap between his last tutorial and his meeting with Umi, but the world didn't like him enough today. One of the undergrads he was tutoring - a first year, Honda Ascot (and no relation to Ferio) - had been sent Clef's way because he was exceptionally gifted, determined to work hard, and had absolutely no idea how to study, having been bounced from country to country and school to school all his life. He was more at home outdoors with any kind of animal imaginable rather than sat down with a book.

As Ascot's magic was mostly focused on summoning and communicating with animals and creatures, created or otherwise, that made sense. But he was also _shy_, probably from being the perpetual new kid, so he hadn't spoken up when he started getting into trouble. By the time any of the Professors realised he needed some help none of them had time to offer it - enter Clef, the handy unpaid teaching assistant.

Clef didn't mind working with Ascot - far from it, the boy was probably the least annoying student he dealt with (and yes, he was damn well including Miss Ryuuzaki in that comment), but he also took up more time than the others. And this week and next were Ascot's first big essay deadlines. A one hour tutorial when he got back from physio turned into two and a half hours helping him convert his essay attempts into de-aru style Japanese, which Ascot had apparently managed to avoid using before. His report kept slipping out of it, and he sat apologetically in front of Clef as he skimmed through, getting quieter and quieter each time they found a mistake.

(They'd been making so much progress last week, too! Ascot had actually looked _straight at him_ instead of hiding behind his overgrown fringe.)

It was _almost_ done by the time Umi knocked at the door. "Excuse me?" She called, and peered round. "Oh. ...Are you busy after all? Should I come back later?"

Ascot flushed and grabbed at his scrawled-on work, shoving it into his satchel. (It was easier to write out the _why_ of grammar in the margins than type it. This way the grammar notes wouldn't end up in the real thing by accident - and Clef could dictate what Ascot noted down, instead of having to explain why he wasn't typing. In an attempt to obey the Dr he'd left his laptop at home (no carrying anything heavy and no typing all in one), and Ascot didn't have one).

"A minute, Miss Ryuuzaki." Clef called out, with a sigh. "Send me a copy when you've typed it in, Ascot? I can check through it for you."

"I don't want to trouble you-"

"It's my _job_." Clef insisted, prepared to grab the boy and keep him here until he agreed. But Ascot nodded the next moment, bundling things into his bag, hunched about it even when he stood up. Ascot was tall as Eagle, but he _never_ stood up straight - Clef winced for his back. "I'll see you on monday then, okay?"

"Yes, thank you, sir." Ascot murmured, and fled - or tried to. He got halfway out the door, spotted Umi, went a deeper shade and froze for a second - bowed awkwardly with his bag clutched to his chest, muttered something in a voice which had gone up half an octave, then shot off in the other direction.

Umi stared after him, blinked, then came in. "Is he okay?" She asked, perplexed.

"Just shy. Plus, it's his first term, so it's his very first essays due next week."

"Ah." Umi grinned. "I see. Everyone's allowed to go a little mad at that point." She came in and dumped her bag on his desk, where the exodus of Ascot's papers had left a gap. The bag was fairly small, light blue, with lace and ruffles - and when it went down with a hefty _thump_ Clef jumped, and all the muscles of his right shoulder protested, loudly, cramping up.

He folded up at the sudden pain, coming all too close to whacking his head on the desk. "_Ah, shi-_" He cut himself off, biting his lip and trying to straighten out, but Umi was halfway around the desk already, hovering over him uncertainly as he used his working hand to press down on the worst of the pain.

"What is it? Are you okay? Should I fetch someone? Did - did my bag _hit_ you or something?" She lay her hand on his left shoulder, and pulled back a second later. "_Please_ tell me I haven't broken you again!"

"No!" He said, in a hurry, looking up at her - which was a mistake, as his neck twinged and then joined the party. He curled up on himself, ear pressed to his aching shoulder, and tried to not swear too loudly until the bright sharpness of pain began to relax. Her hand found his shoulder again and stayed there, this time, holding on just tightly enough to be a comforting kind of distraction. As soon as he could, he said, "No, Umi - Miss Ryuuzaki - it's not your fault, it's just cramp. I moved the wrong way, that's all."

"...You're sure?"

He was glad, for a moment, that he _couldn't_ look up to meet her expression. "I'm sure. Just the aftermath of a bad physio session, and an inability to remember how _not_ to move."

"...Would it have been a bad session if I hadn't _run you over_?" She asked, insistent.

"Um. Perhaps not," he admitted, then found himself rambling on. "But it'll be just as bad the next time I sleep oddly, or reach a heavy book down with the wrong hand, or just forget to not _type_ too much. Bad sessions _happen_, and in between there are the mediocre and the better ones, and eventually there won't be any at all, hopefully. I wouldn't blame you, even if I thought it was your fault, and I don't. These things happen."

Umi frowned at him. "You can't really be that calm about it. It's unnatural."

It was the calmest he'd been about it since he woke up. Clef tried not to laugh. "Oh, I've been spitting mad all day. But at my _arm_, and the therapist who keeps _moving the bones in my wrist_ each session, then buggering about with my shoulder too. You don't get a look in, I'm afraid, Miss Ryuuzaki." He grinned.

"...It's Umi, then." She declared.

"Pardon?"

"Call me Umi. If you're not mad at me, you should call me Umi. You did earlier, now I'm 'Miss' again?"

"Miss Umi, then?" He said, and watched with a swift moment of glee as she glared back at him.

"_Just Umi_. I can't hit you at the moment, don't force me to be sneaky about getting my revenge!"

"...Umi."

"See?" She smiled. "That sounds better -"

"As long as you call me Clef." He said.

"What, you don't want me to call you Sir?" She widened her eyes at him, trying not to laugh, and Clef failed to glare at her, the last of his bad mood lifting. But he didn't take the bait, mindful of the clock, and his plan to hit the library before he went home.

"Well, _Umi_. What did you make of the reading so far?" He waved her back to her seat, and the meeting veered onto more normal lines.

oOo

By Sunday, Clef rebelled and started typing again, worried by how far behind he was getting. Only Emeraude knew him too well and found excuses to disturb him every half hour or so, or else sent Ferio or Zagato to do the same - Lantis, out for the day with Eagle, escaped the same duty only by his absence. So at lunch Clef shoved his laptop and books in his back, and trudged up the hill to lock himself into his office.

Finally alone, he determined to take a ten minute break for each half hour typing, and see how he was going. Contrary to Emeraude's dark muttering, he wasn't a masochist at all, but he _had_ to do a final revision of Ascot's essay at the very least; it wasn't his work, so no one could insist he handed it over to anyone else - a student's right to not have unsubmitted work poked at by just anyone without permission was sacrosanct. That was the only reason, he suspected, that Emeraude had let him keep the laptop in his room at all.

Two hours later he hit send, looked up, spotted the clock, and _winced_.

That... was not good.

He hadn't even remembered the _first_ break he'd intended to take. Ascot's essay was done, for now - he'd had to suggest changes in more places than he'd expected - and he had answered another couple of emails from people panicking about their deadlines. But the burning ache he'd not even noticed building in his wrist promised he was going to pay for it, starting immediately.

There was half a box of pocky in the pocket of his bag, stolen from Ferio when he'd come to disturb Clef that morning. Clef ate the last sticks in a hurry so he'd have something in his stomach before the painkillers - checked he was actually allowed another dose already - then sat very quietly for half an hour as they began to work.

If he went back home looking like he felt now, Emeraude would be _furious_, and he felt stupid enough already!

Campus was almost busy, when he made his way out the building. The libraries and the computer labs were all open, of course, and there were clubs running today. As he took the shortcut down to the back gate, he walked past a group who must have come out of one, paused to talk in the courtyard before they split up and went home. He was too busy feeling guilty to pay them much attention.

Then someone called "Hey! Clef! Wait up a moment!" and Umi came bursting out of the crowd, calling farewell over her shoulder as people waved at her, and watched Clef with interest.

He walked slowly, but didn't precisely stop to wait. (He... didn't like being stared at.) "Your club?" He asked when she caught up, walking down between the buildings.

"Not anymore - it was last year. I was just helping out today." She said, distracted. "Fencing. Clef, is that your laptop?"

The bag was slung over his left shoulder, but the weight was making his whole back tense. He hesitated, guiltily, and Umi took it as yes.

"Here," she said, and darted around him, taking it off him before he could protest - before he could even _grab it_, reflexes slowed by pain and painkillers. He still glared at her. "I'll carry it back for you." Umi insisted, implacable under his frown.

"Don't you bike?"

"Yeah, so you'll wait here at the gate for me, right? I won't be a moment." And she peeled off to the right, vanishing behind the hedge _with his bag_ and leaving behind the trace of a cheshire cat grin in his memory.

With nothing else to do Clef sat on one of the bollards and waited, again, stretching his neck, watching the luminous blue of the sky as it began to darken. His irritation faded away as the velvet calm of the evening surrounded him, no traffic and no one walking by to disturb him. There was a breeze, just about cool enough to be welcome, and his muscles began to unwind a little as he relaxed.

Two minutes later Umi was squeaking to a halt in front of him and clambering off the bike, his bag in the basket, her large gym bag strapped to her back. "I'll walk with you." She repeated. "It's on my way, anyway."

"...You stole my bag." Clef pointed out, feeling uncomfortably gentle about it.

"I'm doing you a favour. I want one in return, don't worry - I want to pick your brains on the way to your place, okay? It'll be an equivalent exchange." She ended with a grin, and he had to laugh. He could imagine her watching that show, trying to work out if the 'alchemy circles' would actually work for anything. (They didn't. The principles were all sound enough, if archaic, but the detail was gibberish.)

"Fine, fine." He stood up, and stretched a little before setting off down the road, Umi pacing beside him with her bike on the edge of the road, wheels making a faint squeak to underlie the conversation. "What do you want to know? Did your reading throw up something else you want to look into before narrowing your topic - do we have to walk slowly?"

"It's not that at all, actually - it was what you wrote about that German Dr's work on circle design, in your dissertation? I can't pronounce her name, sorry. It's just, I'm trying to finish my design essay off, and it sounds like just the thing I need to pad the end out a little, but the only copy the library has is _in _German. I can almost manage English, but German's beyond me. So I was wondering..."

"Ah." They walked slowly after all, Clef moving carefully and pretending he didn't know Umi had noticed. "My copy's in German too, I'm afraid." Umi's face fell. "...I _did_ do a kind of translation of that one chapter. Really rough, you realise. I mean, it has all the facts, but it's nothing like an _actual translation_-"

"That would be such a help! Honestly, it would be brilliant. Fuu - one of my friends, that is - knows enough to help me find the original quotes, if I know what I should ask her to _look_ for."

"I'm not sure I should be helping you quote an article you can't read."

Umi pouted. "But you explained the whole thing so clearly in your essay! I know what it _says, _even without your translation."

"No, you know what _I think_ it says." Clef pointed out. "I might be wrong."

"I trust you." Umi said, shrugging, as if it were just that simple - pinning her grade on her trust of him... only, well, it _wa__s_ that simple, some ways.

He was her _tutor_.

For a moment, he'd mostly forgotten that.

"_Are _there any articles in Japanese which talk about the same thing? You wrote that a couple of years ago - has anything come out since?" Umi asked, and he turned his thoughts firmly back to principles of control circle design.

Umi walked him all the way to Lapita while they talked - and then she tucked her bike up by the fence at the front, behind all the flowerpots, defended his bag from his belated grab at it, and proceeded to carry it up the stairs for him while ignoring every half-formed protest he was babbling. She didn't even wait for him to find her a pair of slippers, leaving him kicking off his own shoes in a hurry and shuffling into his own, catching her by the bottom of the stairs. Then they got far enough about the curve of the stairs to see Emeraude in the corridor, her eyes narrowed a fraction as she stood by Ferio's open door but looked at Clef's locked one, and Clef shut up fast.

Umi faltered a little - most people in their department recognised Emeraude, her power was somewhat notorious, and that one occasion she'd lost her temper with a guest lecturer was legendary - but kept going forwards, and by the time they were out of the stairwell she'd turned back to face Clef. "I might as well come in. You have to find me that translation, anyway, and I was wondering about a couple of the things referenced in the book you leant me, whether they were worth chasing up... I wrote the titles down somewhere, to see if you knew anything about them."

"And how much time _exactly_ are you spending on reading for your dissertation instead of your classwork?" Clef put in, nodding to Emeraude as she turned to watch them. He tried to not look as wary as he felt.

"Eh, enough that I'll be very well informed when you have to start talking me down from taking on far too much at once?" Umi said, and looked about the corridor. "Which one is yours again? 202, isn't it - Oh!" That to Emeraude, and Ferio, who was just opening his door. Umi bowed shortly to them. "It's Miss Mitsubishi, isn't it? One of my friends is being tutored by you - Hououji Fuu? She's a third year undergraduate, she loves working with you."

"Fuu? Ah. That makes you... Ryuuzaki, is it?" Emeraude asked, drawn into the polite rituals of society.

"Ryuuzaki Umi. And I need to thank you myself for helping Clef, last week." Umi said, and Clef could have hit her - that wasn't going to keep Emeraude distracted from him! - but she followed it with "I'm afraid I'm the one who ran into him." and bowed low and respectful, and that _did_ distract Emeraude, long enough for Clef to get his door open without anyone noticing the shake in his hands as he struggled to fit the key in the latch. Even Ferio was watching Umi, and Clef leant his good - well, okay, better - arm against the doorframe to stand and watch, shuffling his bag behind it with one foot so Emeraude couldn't possibly spot the shape of the laptop pressing against the fabric.

"I'm pleased to meet you." Emeraude was saying. "I hear Clef is also tutoring you, now?"

"Mostly so far we're just arguing about the books I should read." Umi turned far enough to grin back at him, and he found himself returning the smile without actually intending to before she turned back. "I've talked him into lending me some of the books, anyway, so at least I won't get any library fines if I take too long!"

"Who says I won't fine you?" Clef asked, amused, and she shot him another infectious grin.

"You'd be that mean to this lowly little undergraduate?"

"You're barely shorter than I am," he retorted, "and I can't imagine you let anyone get away with calling you lowly. But if you want these books in time to get back to your friends for dinner... Sorry, Emeraude, Ferio-"

"Not at all, you're working." Emeraude nodded at him, and he tried not to shift guiltily under her level stare until she moved on. "I'm glad to have met you, Miss Ryuuzaki."

"Just Umi, please! I owe you a lot for helping Clef, and looking after my friend so well." Umi insisted, and then they had made their escape safely into Clef's room, the door shut between them and Emeraude's sharp eyes, and Clef slumped back against it with a sigh.

The curtains were still drawn across the window, statement of the lack of organisation in his morning, and though a fair amount of light filtered through the thin fabric it was still dim back here down at the end of the kitchen-stroke-corridor. Umi deflated a little once the door was shut, watching him almost warily, and her voice when she spoke was pitched low enough it didn't disturb the soft quiet in the shadows, and certainly wouldn't pass through the door. "...Was I right? You didn't want to talk to her right now?"

"Not until I've unwound some of the knots I've put in my arm this afternoon." Clef admitted, listening to the murmur of Emeraude and Ferio talking through the door. "You were brilliant, thank you. Emeraude has a-"

"A temper, yeah. Fuu has told us a couple of stories which... well." Nodding, Umi picked up his bag again and stepped up out of the entrance pit onto his wooden floor, bare-footed, and Clef was suddenly glad he'd swept up yesterday in a fit of defiant procrastination. (Sweeping being one of those things he was supposed to ask someone else to do this week.) "Where do you want this?" She asked.

"You don't have to-"

"I might as well finish the job, now I've got myself into it." She walked down into the main part of the room. "On the desk?"

"Where would it fit?" Clef followed her along, trying not to laugh when she stopped and pulled a face at the amount of _stuff_ on his desk. "Just on the floor beside it is fine, if you insist. I'll get the laptop out before Emeraude gets here..."

"I'll do that too, if you don't mind me going through your bag?" She offered, glancing back. The soft light seemed to dance over her, a glow across golden skin, and for a moment Clef's voice caught in his throat. Hopefully she didn't notice.

"I don't mind, it's all just essays and notes, but you _really_ don't have to..."

"Well, you might forget. I don't want to have my work wasted." Umi pointed out. "...Plus, then Emeraude would know I was aiding and abetting you and I don't really want that to happen." She crouched down to pull the laptop out while he laughed, then stood regarding his desk. "...You do have a lot of _stuff_ on here, don't you."

"Half of it doesn't count, it's my bedside table too." He said, cheerfully enough, and went to the fridge to see if he actually had anything to offer a guest. "Uh, do you want a drink? I have orange juice or some apple drink, or there's water. I've got tea somewhere, but Emeraude stole all my coffee a month back and hasn't returned it yet..."

"What, did she run out?"

"No, she found me drinking it at three in the morning." Clef admitted, wry, winning another laugh out of Umi and watching the way it made her eyes light up. "I've been banned since then. There's always the drink's machine outside if you want something else. And I swear I have some biscuits here somewhere..." He glanced into the fridge again, absently wondering what he should do for food tonight as he seemingly had none, and when he turned back Umi was staring into it with him, lips still quirked up.

"...You're a fan of cooking, then?"

He raised his arm in defence. "Banned from chopping too many things!"

One eyebrow quirked up, and his lips twitched in response, and how had she _done_ that? How did she have him _making jokes_ about his arm, when he barely managed that with his closest friends? He'd known her for a week! But she...

When she'd looked at his arm, at the ink staining him, there had been curiosity in her expression. Not horror, not pity, but interest. It was... refreshing. It hadn't put her off, she wasn't ignoring the rest of his existence for it...

"I'm fine, thanks. I had a drink after fencing." She said, after a moment, and turned back to the shelves. "...Which of these books am I borrowing?"

"The biggest blue one on the bottom right, for one. If you get that one, I'll dig out the other two..."

"Two? Are they multiplying?"

"Well, while you're here, you might as well borrow everything I have which should help you. Like you said, no fines, right?"

"I'll have to take you out for dinner to pay you back." Umi said, absently, and he nearly dropped a very hefty book on her head as she knelt by his feet to look at the lowest shelves. Fortunately he managed to grab it with his other hand before he'd completely let go. "That's what I do for Fuu and Hikaru, anyway." She continued, oblivious, and glanced up. "Eesh, is that one of them? It's massive! Do I have to read all of it?"

"I, uh. No." Clef said, trying not to squeak. "It was just in the way. It - here, hold it a second?" And he dumped the book in her hands to turn his attention fully to the shelves and away from distracting undergraduates. "The one by Daimler and the Suzuki one - okay. That's it, I think. You're all set." He traded two thinner volumes for the hefty one and wedged it back into place. "The translation for the German one is tucked into the back of it - if you struggle with my handwriting, send me an email, I've got the notes typed up somewhere."

"Thanks, Clef. I'll get going, then; I actually do have people to meet this evening. I'll try to get through these before the next time we meet-"

"You'll read one of them and then get your other work done." He said, trying to glare, failing miserably. Umi just laughed at him.

"I won't get into any trouble I can't get back out of. I'll see you soon, then."

"Get home safely." He said, walking with her to his door, then feeling rather silly at having said such a... domestic thing. "I mean, don't run anyone else over!"

"Don't worry," she shot back. "I only aim for you!" Then she was out of the door and passing Ferio as he walked back from, presumably, Emeraude's, just in time to catch Umi's shout. Ferio pulled a shocked face at Clef, who glared right back at him.

"Don't you start, or I'm not inviting you to Jumbo's tonight."

"I'm not saying a word!" Ferio insisted. "Not when I might miss out on okonomiyaki - you're paying, right?"

"Oh, go _away_." Clef told him, and shut the door again on his friend's laugh.

"I'll see you in half an hour!" Ferio announced loud enough most of their neighbours must have heard it as well.

Downstairs, the heavy front door swung shut with a clang as Umi left.

oOo

end chapter three

oOo

*down scurries back to throwing things at Protecting You*


End file.
